Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (95 page)

“I could have stopped him,” Damen
whispered.

Chuck sat down in a chair next to the window,
watching Damen as he fell to the cold, tiled floor, drowning his
eyes with tears of guilt. “Stopped who, Damen?”

“Jose. I could have stopped him from coming
here. It was his idea for us to come to Hollywood when we did. If I
would have stopped him from going, then me, Jose, and Darell
wouldn’t be here right now, and Jose wouldn’t be in this hospital
at this moment.”

Chuck put his hand on his shoulder, watching
Damen gazing at him. Chuck smiled, showing sincerity through his
frail teeth. “Listen, why didn’t you stop him then?”

“Because, I wanted to come here too.” Damen
got up from the floor and looked out the window again, adding with
tears in his voice, “But now, I don’t think I want to be here
anymore.”

“Listen, sometimes life isn’t as perfect as
you think. Sometimes you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but
you did,” Chuck stated.

Damen turned away from the window and looked
at him. The last, single tear came from his right eye that would be
the last tear that Damen will shed for a little bit to reality, but
a long interval for Damen. “What do you mean, Chuck?”

“Well, you guys came to Hollywood to make it
famous together. But, you guys ended your friendships and made it
famous anyway. You see, through this, you got to see the way Jose
is really like, you got the chance to finally take off the mask
that Jose wore, and also the mask that Darell wore,” Chuck
explained, concentrating on Damen wiping away his final tear.

“But.” Damen paused his words and noticed a
doctor approaching him and Chuck.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Andrew, are you Damen
Schultz?” the doctor asked.

Damen noticed a stain of blood on the
doctor’s blue apron, responding in a fast and frantic voice, “Yes,
is Jose alright?”

Chuck got up and questioned to the doctor,
“Listen, before you answer him, could you please tell me, in
private, the information on Jose’s injuries?”

Damen looked over Chuck’s shoulders to see
and hear the doctor’s answer. “Sure, please come with me, sir.”

Chuck walked with him down the hallway,
suddenly stopping, turning around and saying toward Damen, “I’ll be
right back, Damen.”

Damen lingered the hallways of the large
hospital with a thought of despair, mixed with guilt in the grasp
of his mind. He was confused, disoriented, wanting only one thing,
and that was Jose to be better, to get well. The thought of him
even dying wasn’t in his mind, only because he couldn’t handle it,
and if it did happen, he didn’t know what he would do, who he would
kill for harming his best friend, and what length he would travel
to find God. His beliefs, his divinity, his trust in God would be
lost forever, if God took Jose’s life, and those thoughts spun in
Damen’s aptitude, as he walked the hallways more and more, trying
to find, retrieve some direction, some purpose as to where he’s
going to. He walked down the stairway, hoping to find a way out
from the hospital.

But, why?

He asked that in his mind, repeatedly,
wanting to know why he should escape from the hospital that holds
his dying friend. To Damen, his escaping symbolized the escape from
his problems, guilt, and sorrow that Hollywood has brought to him;
yet, he shouldn’t blame it on Hollywood, only because it was a
city, not a human being.

As he reached the main floor of the hospital,
he saw the exit, so he began running to it, running from his fears,
and running from his destiny, a destiny that he didn’t want
anymore. He ran out of the hospital and came across the media,
journalists, fans, and cameramen that were separated from him by a
single yellow fence that was put up by the police. He lit a
cigarette and looked at them all, watching as the flashes of light
from the cameras came on his face. He scrutinized and watched very
carefully as the yelling of his name came out from every single one
of them; Damen realized that he was trapped. Between the hospital
and the yellow fence, that’s where he stood, not knowing where to
turn, or which direction to take on. All he wanted was to go back
to Ridge Crest and go down to the Valley that he called Sugar. He
remembered how he used to feel so safe in it, the Valley held his
happiness; that’s how he remembered his roots. He remembered what
Chuck told him about finding his roots, and he did at that moment.
Remembering how the Valley protected them, protected their
happiness, their contentment, and their ambition, Damen was
overwhelmed with the yearning for the euphoria that the Valley gave
to them all. He looked up at the stars and found the brightest in
the sky, comprehending in metaphoric sense that he was that star,
the star that he always wanted to be. But to Jose, he would become
a fallen star, that is if he didn’t survive his wounds.

Damen tried to cry again, to release the
pressure that his guilt, terror, and sadness brought to him, but he
couldn’t cry. It was like he used up all of his tears. He tried for
an hour to cry, but he wasn’t successful. He lit up his eighth
cigarette and slowly began to approach the crowd that was getting
larger by the minute. That’s when Chuck appeared behind him. He put
his hand on Damen’s shoulder and squeezed it ever so gently. Damen
knew who it was, remembering that same grasp from before, feeling
the love in it, the trust. Damen turned around very slowly, and
asked in sadness, “Why can’t I cry anymore? Chuck, why can’t I let
this pain leave?”

“Come here, son,” Chuck grabbed Damen and
gave him a tight hug, wanting him to feel better, blanketing him
with his love, wanting his dear friend and surrogate son to feel
better with his love, urging.

“Is it wrong for me to not cry? I mean, is
it?” Damen was frantic, he squeezed his eyelids tight together and
tried to create some sort of a tear, but nothing was shown.

“Damen, Jose wants to talk to you.”

He dropped his cigarette, and began walking
with Chuck in a fast manner toward the hospital entrance. “Is he
gonna be okay?”

“Well, he just came out of surgery, and the
doctor already talked to me.”

“Well, is he gonna be okay?” Damen asked
again, stopping by the entrance doorway and looking at Chuck in an
eager way.

Chuck paused for a few second, knowing the
news of Jose’s health, and not really wanting to speak of it. But,
he explained, “Damen, I don’t want to lie to you. Listen, Jose got
shot in the liver, and many other spots that caused internal
bleeding, and it went straight through to his spine. The doctor’s
explained to me, in medical terminology, what happened to Jose.
But, in English terms.” He paused his words for a moment, and then
added, “He’s dying, Damen. I’m sorry.” Chuck began crying, showing
his tears to Damen, symbolizing that all people have a soft spot to
them. Damen looked away from Chuck’s crying face, not showing any
tears, but having so much strength within him that he took it like
a man. He was crying inside, so much he was, yet he still asked one
single question, a question that was hard to get out from his
tear-filled lungs.

“How long?”

“Well, the Doctor told me he could survive up
to sixteen hours, or even less. They don’t know themselves. He
sustained a lot of internal bleeding in the stomach area,” Chuck
responded with them walking into the hospital.

“Um, I, um, I have to call his parents,”
Damen spoke in a loud tone, perceiving they must be worried sick
about Jose.

“They’re already on their way. Darell’s and
your parents are coming too. They saw everything on TV, I just got
off the phone with them. They’ll be here in less than an hour and a
half.” Chuck and Damen began walking faster, wanting to get to
Jose’s room as soon as possible.

While Damen walked up to Jose’s room, he felt
sick to his stomach, the fears, and the guilt mixed together caused
him to vomit before he entered it. As he entered it, he saw
Julienne with a cast on her leg and arm; she was holding Jose’s
hand. He saw Dennis and Henry Schultz in there too, they were
sitting down in chairs. Damen walked past them all and came to
Jose’s sight, seeing him bandaged up, pale face was his complexion,
and watery eyes was his sight. Damen whispered, “So, how ya doin’,
jerk?”

Jose began laughing, chuckling, “I’ve been
better, asshole.”

Damen didn’t want Jose to see his fears or
his sadness, all he wanted to do was make Jose happy in his last
hours of life. But he had to make amends with Jose, for his sake
and for Jose’s dying self. “Jose, um, I’m so sorry for everything
that happened. I mean, I forgive you for stealing Vivian away from
me; she was only a girlfriend. Our friendship is more important,”
Damen stated as Julienne looked at him.

“Thank you, Damen. I want to apologize for
the lie that I told about you,” spoke Jose. Julienne began walking
away from them, seeing her lies were about to come out, not wanting
to be there when they did.

“What lie?” Damen was confused, not noticing
that Julienne was ready to exit the room.

“The lie about you being on drugs. The only
reason I told it was because I wanted the co-star role in The Point
of a Well. I was going to tell Henry and Dennis that it was a lie.
I know I would have told them directly after the lie started, but
then I found out that you told a lie about me,” coughed Jose,
trying to keep up his inhaling and exhaling to the best of his
ability.

“You mean, your part in the movie was
supposed to go to me?”

Julienne began to walk out of the room.
“Yeah.” Jose’s words showed that his guilt and fear shined through,
also it gleamed by him crying toward Damen’s sight.

“Jose, I never told a lie about you,”
explained Damen in puzzlement.

The doctor came in the room to hook Jose to
an oxygen tank, allowing them both to realize their own deceits
were not of each other, but of somehow, Julienne Wells betraying
them both.

While all the lies that Julienne began were
being revealed, Julienne walked to the elevator to escape them. As
soon as the elevator doors opened, she saw her ex-agent come out of
it. He asked in a frantic expression, “Are you alright,
Julienne?”

“What do you care, Mike?”

He looked at her with confusion, then he gave
her a hug, stating with caring to his character, “Because, I heard
on the news that you got shot also. I do care about you, Julienne.
Just because I’m not your agent anymore, doesn’t mean I don’t have
feelings for you.”

“Well, I’m fine. Now, if you would excuse me,
I have to go,” Julienne stated, hopping her way into the
elevator.

“Go? You’re not going anywhere, the people
outside will stomp you to death. You’re staying right here, where
it’s safe.” Mike was strict but caring at the same time, grabbing
her by the arm and guiding her out of the elevator.

“I just want to get out of here,” yelled
Julienne. She then saw two police officers walking down the hall,
causing her to become paranoid. She felt the police already knew
that she was at fault for the shootings. “On second thought, I
think it would be better to take the stairway.”

“Are you crazy? Come on, I was on my way to
seeing Jose anyway, so let’s go to his room,” said Mark, forcing
Julienne to sit down in a wheelchair that was by the elevator.

“But I don’t want to see Jose.” Julienne
sounded like a rebellious adolescent, so he treated her like one,
by pushing her toward Jose’s room against her will.

Meanwhile, Jose was crying over Julienne’s
lies that came out, the lies that Jose didn’t even know about.

“But, Damen, Julienne told me that you said
you were spreading rumors about me. Julienne said she overheard
Dennis talking about you saying that I did drugs,” cried Jose, his
tears fell like water dripping from a faucet.

Damen turned his frantic head toward Dennis’
eyes, pleading, “Dennis, did I ever say that to you?”

Dennis approached them with his older brother
Henry, responding toward Jose’s pale face, “No, Damen never said
that to me.”

“Why would Julienne tell me that then? Why
would she tell me a lie?” Jose screamed out.

Mike wheeled Julienne into Jose’s room,
hearing his question echoing in his ears, as well as Julienne’s
mind. Mike stopped her wheelchair and spoke from a distance,
“Because she wanted to regain her success again.”

They all turned around to face Mike and
Julienne, showing shock to Jose’s mind and guilt to Julienne’s
face. Jose, with his feeble and twisted stomach, he gathered all of
his last remaining strength, and screamed out, “What?” He stopped
his words for a few seconds and then shouted in a hurtful but
furious way, “Did you lie about Damen kissing you too? Was that a
lie?”

Julienne got up from the wheelchair and
walked to one of the corners of the room. She knew it was over for
her, everything that she worked for was over, finished, destroyed,
and mangled into a piece of dust that was about to blow away when
she opened her mouth. She understood that fame didn’t come through
for her a second time, being so close, but yet so far away from
achieving it again. Before she spoke to Jose’s pale image, she
thought of how nice it would have been if Mark shot the correct
person, that would mean Julienne wouldn’t be in this position; but
she was. All she could say was three simple words. “I’m sorry,
Jose.”

Mr. Rodrigo’s eye widened, not wanting to
accept it, not wanting to believe that she just apologized to him,
craving that her words would say that it wasn’t true; but yet, it
was. He started coughing, crying even more, and then whispered in
hurt, “What? You mean it’s true what Damen tells me? You lied?”

Mike saw that she wasn’t speaking a word yet,
so he turned to her, and questioned with complete seriousness, “Do
you want me to tell him, or you?”

“No, I’ll tell him.”